It’s nice to be in a home again!

As you may or may not know, this area has been in a drought situation for about 10 years, depending upon whom you talk to. They are in ‘Class Four’ water restrictions’, which means that there is absolutely NO water allowed to be used outside unless it comes from your bath or roof or shower. This has been the case here for four years. Rod’s yard and roof is an amazing complex of water tanks, pipes and hoses. Each of his three tanks has a rough capacity of 8000 liters. Hopefully, water is accumulated from bits and pieces of rainfalls from the roofs of the house, garage and shed.

In July, August, September and October, [winter months], miniscule amounts, and in some months nothing, fell, but some did accumulate. This water is used to water the garden and lawns. The lawns are in terrible shape, brown, dying or dead. Many plants and shrubs have withered and died over the years.

Yesterday, as we approached our final destination, the clouds darkened and I mentioned to all that it looked like rain ahead. Soon, the spitter and spatter on the windshield necessitated the wipers be put on and the light rain continued. As we unpacked the car we had to stop because of the rain. Then, after the rain ceased we finished unpacking the van and Lyn went shopping as we settled in. Soon the remaining three of us were standing at the window watching what was a veritable monsoon pelt and pummel down under gale-like winds. Later Lyn appeared with the bags sopping wet but laughing out loud.

After the rain abated somewhat Rod went and checked the rain gauge and reported that we had had 5/8 of an inch, [14 mm], the most in years. Because of their system, no rainfall leaves the property, some gutters go to the tanks, some to an underground tree watering system recently installed, and some goes to the fish ponds that Rod put in optimistically some time ago.

It rained again during the night and in the morning the tanks had caught an amazing amount of water. Neat system, I will send photos one day Ian.

At church this morning one member praised the Lord for the rain. Later, Lyn talked to one farmer who cursed the rain because his vetch crop [fodder] that was ready to harvest had its price cut to 1/3 of its intended price. You just cannot please everybody.

I never realized how happy I would be to be in the Lindroth’s home until we got there. We both had an absolutely wonderful sleep last night, with a comforter piled on top of us, listening to the rain on the tin roof. Just like 100 Mile.

I am a bit tired of traveling this way and am looking forward to a visit to the lumberyard and hardware store with Rod tomorrow. We have some renovation and maintenance work that we would like to do for and with them.

I am also going to take a bit of a break from blogging, maybe only for a day, maybe more. The adventure is not over folks, there is some serious work to be done here that utilizes saws and lumber and concrete. I do not want to be too optimistic and overstate our goals, but I promise to put some very interesting pictures in front of you in the remaining 22 days we have here.

My first job in the morning is to get so that I can use my own computer in their home. I told you it was always a challenge to get on the internet, but the last place in the world I thought that I would have a problem is here!